So last week Dillon’s had their annual (semi-annual?) Mega sale. I have read about these sales in the past but I didn’t live near a Dillon’s during the last one. As the details of the sale rolled out (I am so sorry I wasn’t able to get them out to you guys), I started to get excited about all of the free toiletries and the Mentos overage item! I started ordering coupons and I placed a HUGE order at one of my local stores.
I ordered:
- 134 tubes of Crest toothpaste (6 oz)
- 110 bottles of Ivory body wash
- 180 bottles of Mentos gum (overage!!)
- 60 sticks of Suave deodorant
- 55 Oral B toothbrushes (I haven’t received my Qs for these yet)
I am so excited because I found that this particular store is really coupon friendly and the associates were extremely helpful. As a matter of fact, when I went in to pick up most of my order (trip 1 of 2), I went to customer service and Matt rang me up. He was really friendly and patient. As a matter of fact, when the register didn’t compute the total correctly (I did all of the math ahead of time down to the tax), he corrected it manually.
Tip: The registers at Dillon’s apparently weren’t set up to accept that many (hundreds) coupons so we think it just didn’t accept all of the coupons properly. Next time I will break an order this large into multiple transactions to make it easier on the machines.
I also had great service from Dylan, whom I think works in General Merchandising (?). If you are reading, thanks again, Dylan!! These guys were kind enough to let me take their pictures for this post.
Now that all of the “shout outs” are out of the way, it is time to get down to business.
Items included in pictures above:
- 134 tubes of Crest toothpaste – $1 ($134)
- 113 bottles of Ivory body wash – $1 ($113)
- 20 packages of Dixie paper plates* – $1.49 after Mega Sale ($29.80)
- 10 packages of Dixie napkins* – $1.49 after Mega Sale ($14.90)
- 26 packages of Irish Spring bar soap (3 to each pack)* – $1 after Mega Sale ($26)
- 5 bags of Kraft string cheese – $3.99 (ish) ($19.95)
- 5 bags of Kraft shredded cheddar cheese* – $1.99 after Mega Sale ($9.95)
- 4 packages of Dan-o-nino yogurt * – $1.79 after Mega Sale ($7.16)
- 80 bottles of Mentos gum* – $1 + Mega sale ($80)
- 60 sticks of Suave deodorant – $1 ($60)
- 22 packages of Papermate (I believe?) pens – 3/$1 ($7.33)
- 3 Sunday papers (gotta get my coupons!) – $2 ($6)
- 8 packages of Scotch foam mounting squares* – $1 after Mega Sale ($8)
- 10 packages of Colgate Whisp* – $1.50 after Mega Sale ($15)
The current Mega sale promotion was “Buy 10 Mega Sale items, save $5 instantly”. All items included in the Mega Sale had an asterisk beside them above. There were also a couple other promotions that coincided with the Mega sale:
- Kraft Cheese – Buy 5, save $5 off your next order (catalina offer)
- Dan-o-nino – Buy 4, save $2 off your next order (catalina offer)
- Mentos gum was on sale for $1 + part of the mega sale so this turned into a $5 money-make for every (10) packs purchased.
- Napkins – Peelies made the napkins free when I purchased the paper plates so this turned into $5 overage also since I “bought” (10) and they were part of the Mega sale.
- Papermate – Spend $20 (original price), get $4 catalina
Coupons Used:
- (134) $.50/1 Crest Toothpaste (doubled to $1) ($134 off)
- (113) $.50/1 Ivory Body Wash (double to $1 ) ($113 off)
- (20) $.50/1 Dixie Paper Products (doubled to $1) ($20 off)
- (10) Buy (2) Dixie paper plates/bowls, get napkins free peelies ($14.90)
- (26) $.50/1 Irish Spring bar soap (double to $1) ($26 off)
- (5) $1/2 Kraft cheese ($5 off)
- (4) $.50/1 Dan-o-nino yogurt (doubled to $1) ($4 off)
- (80) $.50/1 Mentos gum (doubled to $1) ($80 off)
- (60) $.75/1 Suave deodorant (doubled to $1) ($60 off)
- (8) $.50/1 Scotch foam mounting squares (doubled to $1) ($8 off)
- (10) $.50/1 Colgate Whisp (doubled to $1) ($5 off)
So, before tax, my total was something like $6 + tax. I also got back (2) $2 CATs and (2) $5 CATS. So, before tax, my total was around -$8!!!
Tip: Tax is calculated on the pre-coupon sales price in most states.
Since my tax rate is 7.3% (yowsers!), the tax equaled around$39. This would have made my total $31 after all taxes! Woo Hoo! One other thing to keep in mind — I actually bought quite a few of my coupons and I had a second trip to use the rest of my overage from the Mentos gum. I spent around $19 on coupons for this transaction.
I almost forgot to mention, I also got around 500 fuel points for this purchase giving me $.50 off per gallon of gas on my next fill up! That is a savings of about $7.50!
My total on this trip after all savings and including the cost of coupons (pre-tax) was around $4!! After tax, my totals are looking around $43.
What am I going to do with all of this? I plan to use quite a bit of it to fill shoes boxes for my church for Christmas this year. I will also keep some of it for our own personal use. I don’t foresee having to buy toothpaste again for a while. I am sure some of it will end up in a garage sale also. haha.
Did you get any great deals this week? Were you able to work on your stockpile at all? I would love to hear about it! Feel free to leave a comment below.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you please tell me how you had that many coupons for one item. Where do you get the coupons and how many do you actually pay for. Thanks for the help.
Hi Cris. This is a great question. When I know there is going to be a great sale, I usually order my coupon on eBay. For the most part, I can generally get about (20) coupons for around $1 (or $2) and pay $.99 to have them shipped. I often multiples from the same seller so that I do not get charged shipping charges twice. They usually combine shipping. Keep in mind that these people are actually selling “their time to clip the coupons” not the actual coupons themselves.
Also, there are great clipping sites out there like Granny Clippin’ or The Coupon Clippers. When I calculated my end total on this post, I included the cost of the coupons.
Stay tuned. I will be doing another post soon on how to acquire coupons and a tutorial on how to buy them online. This is a highly contested topic among couponers. There are couponers out there that think you should not be able to do this. I, on the other hand, am ok with it. Not only does it help small businesses but the stores also get paid for the coupons.
I didn’t realize that you could place an order for items that you are buying several of. Do you just call the store or what?
I just go to CS. They usually have someone from GM come place the order. It usually only takes a couple days to get the items in.
Hello Mary, I was wondering if there is a way of finding out the up coming sales? Did you just wait for the add to come out order coupons then order from store. I know sometimes you have told us what will be on sale. I really like the new site you did a great job.Thanks for all your help. Hope you all are doing well and that you husband is doing well.
Hi Regina. In my experience, Walgreens ads are very easy to come by. If a good deal arises (free or super cheap), I will post this ahead of time so that you can get prepared. Dillons, however, is a little different. It is a Kroger chain of stores and I do often find out about sales for Kroger ahead of time BUT Dillons sales are not always the same as Kroger’s.
Generally Target is not leaked too far ahead of time.
I am going to try to be a bit more diligent about posting deals before the actual sale start date.
Thanks for the compliment! The site is really coming along. There is still quite a bit of tweaking I have to do but it will be done soon enough and I can get back to focusing on what I like to do best — posting deals! Seth is doing well. He will not land in Afghanistan for a few more weeks. He is doing a bit of training here in the states. We miss him but God is with us and giving us the strength we need to make it through.
My next informative post is going to be on how to order coupons and place orders with your local stores. Stay tuned for that…
Quick question for you, Mary. I was in Kroger’s the other day buying some of the sale items before my coupons expired. I noticed that all of the 50 cent coupons I had weren’t doubling like I thought they were supposed to. I asked the manager and he told me that their policy is to only double coupons for 3 of the same item. Any items beyond those 3 will have the face value of the coupon subtracted. How did you get around this at your Dillons store? This wasn’t something he manually altered…it came up automatically in the system.
Ruth, I have heard of this happening at some stores but I have never had it happen to me. My store does not restrict the use/number of coupons used. If you have another store in your area, I would give it a try.